


The Things We're Made For

by justalittlegreen



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Dad - Freeform, Gen, Sons, fathers, fathers and sons, hawkeye calls sherm dad, sherm is the dadliest, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 06:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20305183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justalittlegreen/pseuds/justalittlegreen





	The Things We're Made For

"Now, Hawkeye, I don't need a nursemaid, I need to get back to - "

"You need to get back to nothing except getting your blood pressure back down - "

"Don't start with me; I outrank you!" 

"Don't you start with me; you're my patient!"

"Is that so!"

"You may have thirty years of practice on me, Dad, but I'm not about to stop the clock by watching you drop dead of a heart attack because you're too stubborn to _lie the hell down!_"

...

...

"Hawkeye, are you -"

"Nothing. It's nothing. I'm fine. It's _fine._ Go to your office if you want."

"Come back here."

"I just need a minute."

"That's an _order_, son."

...  
...

"I get the feeling there's more to this than my blood pressure."

"I'm sorry; it's nothing. I let something run away with me for a moment. You're going to be fine."

"Hawkeye."

"Colonel?"

"Are you going to tell me what happened with your father?"

"Nothing happened with him! He's fine. Healthy as a horse. Probably going to outlive me."

"Given the way you drink, my Mildred's going to outlive you, but that's for another time. What got you so upset?"

"It's just something I remembered from a few years ago, that's all."

"Something about him not taking well to a doctor's orders?"

"He'd had his gall bladder out and wasn't taking it easy enough. Tried to go see a patient two days post-op."

"Well, if he was taking it easy enough, he might've been up for something simple."

"....there were three feet of snow on the ground and enough coming down you couldn't see the trees from the house."

"Oh. I see."

"Turned out he had a bit of an infection. A fever that made him a little crazy. I didn't realize it until I was wrestling him back into bed and my hand touched his forehead."

"Ah."

"I was...what, twenty-five, twenty-six? Barely into my residency. Taking a week off I didn't have so I could be home with him, and the fool wanted to go on a suicide mission to check on Betsy Waterford's ear infection."

"It's always a hard moment when a man realizes his father is just another man."

"I was so frightened. I almost didn't go back to Boston. He was back to his old self the next morning. And I never saw him like that again."

"Sounds like it really was just the fever talking."

"I know. I know! But it's hard to shake. And what if it wasn't? And I'm just...not there to see it?"

"Son..."

"Colonel?"

"I don't know what to tell you. It's always a worry, that something'll happen to the ones we leave behind. Sometimes I think I worry more about Mildred than she does about me."

"Colonel?"

"Yes?"

"What happens if I go home and he's..."

"Not all there?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then you'll see what you can do to set him back together. Or help him as much as you can. But if your father's anything like me, he's going to want you to live your own life, Hawkeye. You were made for bigger things than caring for your old man."

"See, that's where you're wrong."

"Hmm?"

"After my mom died...it was just him and me. He was so clueless about some things. I don't think we ate a real dinner for a year because all he knew how to make was pancakes, scrambled eggs and French toast. He sewed a button on my coat with a suture kit because he didn't know where she kept the sewing box. My haircuts were _awful_. But he was there when nobody else was. If he needed me, Colonel...there'd be no better use of my time."

...  
...

"Okay. You win."

"I win? What do I win?"

"I'll stay here for one more shift. But you'd better entertain me."

"I could read you the advice columns from Nudist Monthly. Or send Father Mulcahy to read to you from Leviticus."

"I'll take something down the middle of that road."

"I could read you the Crabapple Cove Courier. My father was mentioned in last September's edition, which is the most current one I have."

"Oh? What's it say about him?"

"He was on the scene of a car accident that ended in a birth. He delivered the baby through the back window."

"Now that sounds like a story I'd like to hear. Go get it."

"Right after you take a nap."

"I'm not taking a - oh, hell. Wake me when you're back."

"Sleep well, Colonel."

"You too, son."


End file.
